Melody of Distant Shores
- colspan="2" }} Personality Corax are, as a rule, inquisitive and nervous. Melody is no exception to this, but the events of her past have left a few minor neuroses that become evident by watching her, even if their reasons do not. She prefers to do things with her own two hands, for instance, and will go out of her way to walk (or fly) a letter or package to its destination rather than posting it. She will call back later rather than leave messages, and if she can, she will find someone to talk to them in person rather than trusting her words to a more long-reaching medium. Melody is a very quick learner, quicker than most Corax. She knows this well, and sometimes can come off as a little arrogant when her mind wraps around a new subject faster than others', or a little pretentious because she knows too much. She tries not to intimidate people with her brain, but she also doesn't see much point in making sure that everybody "gets it" before acting. Sheet Homid Attributes: : Physical: Strength 1, Dexterity 3, Stamina 2 : Social: Charisma 3, Manipulation 2, Appearance 3 : Mental: Perception 3, Intelligence 4, Wits 3 Abilities: : Talents: Athletics 2, Dodge 2, Empathy 2, Expression 2, Primal Urge 1, Sensitivity 3 : Skills: Crafts 1, Marksmanship 2, Meditation 3, Research 3, Stealth 2 : Knowledges: Academics 2, Cosmology 3, Enigmas 4, Investigation 2, Linguistics 2, Lore 2, Occult 3, Rituals 2 Advantages: : Banality: 5 : Backgrounds: Contacts 1, Other People's Secrets 3, Rites 3, Umbral Maps 1 : Virtues: Conscience 3, Courage 4, Self Control 3 : Rage: 1 : Gnosis: 8 : Willpower: 8 : Renown: (Permanent/Temporary) :* Glory: 0 :* Honor: 1 :* Wisdom: 6 : Gifts: Enemy Ways, Morse, Sense Magic, Tongues, Voice of the Mimic : Rites: :* Minor Rites: Dance of Lights, Greet the Sun :* Level 1 Rites: Rite of Binding, Rite of Talisman Dedication, Washing the Spirit :* Level 2 Rites: Rite of Becoming, Rite of the Sun's Bright Ray : Paths: Herbalism/Brewing 1 : Merits: Concentration (1pt), Eidetic Memory (2pts), Fast Learner (3pts), Lightning Calculator (1pt) : Flaws: The Bard's Tongue (1pt), Curiosity (2pts), Miss Red Tape (4pts) Totem: Raven :Background Cost: None :Traits: Raven grants Corax one point each in Subterfuge, Enigmas and Dodge. :Ban: Corax must whisper each secret they learn into the air so that Raven can hear it. Freebies * 4 for Talent: Expression 2 * 2 for Talent: Primal Urge 1 * 6 for Skill: Meditation 3 * 6 for Skill: Research 3 * 2 for Knowledge: Enigmas 4 * 4 for Knowledge: Investigation 2 * 4 for Knowledge: Linguistics 2 * 4 for Knowledge: Rituals 2 * 1 for Background: Umbral Maps 1 * 4 for Gnosis 8 * 5 for Willpower 8 * 7 for Gift: Sense Magic * 7 for Gift: Tongues * 14 for Path: Herbalism/Brewing 2 Expertises & Specialties :Marksmanship - Expertise: Bows :Enigmas - Specialty: Spirit Puzzles Merits & Flaws :Miss Red Tape - A mysterious side-effect of her fights in the Deep Umbra, Melody suffers from an inability to get anything done through the channels set up in human society to handle things. Supernatural channels are less affected, but she's had a few messenger spirits get eaten en route. Whether that's an effect of her curse or just bad luck is unclear, but Melody has adopted a very hands-on way of getting things done that borders on paranoia, just in case. Backgrounds :Contacts - Melody keeps in touch with an Uktena Bane-Tender in the Rocky Mountains known as Firefly's Path, whose job it is to visit various sacred places regularly and check up on them. :Other People's Secrets - Melody knows more than she probably should about Uktena magic. She picked up the basics of herbalism when they nursed her back to health, and while her obtaining their magic-sensing Gift wasn't objected to, nobody had actually taught her to do it. History Melody Sachs used to be a typical Corax. Born inquisitive, way too talkative for her own good (even though it's totally not her fault that other people often don't want to listen to lengthy discussions about interesting subjects; after all, as Chesterton said, there are no uninteresting subjects, only uninterested people) and easily distr—oo, shiny. She grew up in Chicago, Changed about as quietly as possible one morning when she was sixteen, got tracked down by a pair of Corax and taught the ropes. To the outside world, the only change was that Melody got over her chronic indecision about the future and decided to make her photography hobby into a career. She was a quick study with a mind like a beartrap and a quick finger on the camera button. She learned well the lessons on picking out details and even better the lessons on figuring out what the Hell it is she was looking at. It was only well after her becoming Corax and her education that her life became interesting by Corax standards. Going along with the job Gaia set for her people, she became a scout and hooked up with this Garou pack near the area whose Ragabash couldn't fly. Working with the Theurge of said pack got her interested in learning rites. Between the Garou and her Corax mentors, she started learning rites, a study that culminated in her learning the Rite of Becoming. She wisely decided not to set foot in the Deep Umbra until she was stronger, and she wouldn't make use of the Rite of Becoming for five years. Melody Sachs was twenty-six, Corax for nearly a decade, when she finally got to use the rite in the field. The pack needed some information from an abstract spirit in the Deep Umbra, so naturally they asked their friend the Corax to go looking for them. Melody went and found the information, but in the process her braid got destroyed, and she couldn't get back before she lost the way. A year she spent in that place. A year of alternately fighting and dealing with spirits, trying to find her way home and ultimately getting nowhere until she ran into a tribe of shadows, enigmatic spirits of magic. They attacked her, for some reason she still doesn't know, and imprisoned her. At first, this seemed like the end of the line. Melody was sure that she would die lost in the Deep Umbra, another one of the Corax's numbers lost, but luck was with her. A pack of Uktena were also fighting the shadow-spirits. They found a broken, bedraggled raven-shifter on the verge of becoming completely disconnected from the world of flesh and brought her back with them. Melody woke up in a cabin in the Rocky Mountains over a month later, having spent the time since her last step sideways in a coma. The Uktena had nursed her while she slept, and she returned the favor by telling them everything she'd found out about the shadow-things in case they ever became a problem again. They humbled her by showing that they knew not only the behavior and weaknesses of the creatures, but that the Garou had already taken care of the human magician who had caused them to be interested in the physical world in the first place. Still, it was impressive that she managed to survive in the Deep Umbra for so long. The pack called her the Melody of Distant Shores, for where she had come from and where she had gone. To pay them back for their help, Melody stayed in Colorado. She hadn't been permanently injured, but her stay with the Uktena quickly revealed deeper wounds. Layers of neuroses from her extended time in the Deep Umbra were the most obvious, as well as some trauma from however it was the shadow-things had attacked her. Most of this was pretty easy to work through in therapy. It eventually became evident that she had been changed irrevocably somehow. The literally arcane nature of her former captors gave some clue as to what had happened, but the rest she had to piece together over the years. At first it seemed an unmarred blessing; her mind was faster once she left the Deep Umbra, her sensitivity to magic sharper. Without anyone's instruction, she picked up the basics of Uktena herbalism from watching their Theurge practice the art (the Theurge sighed and taught her how to do it properly so that she wouldn't have to risk dangerous trial and error). She even picked up a Gift of the Uktena that let her refine and focus her magical senses. By then, they'd all gotten used to the idea, so nobody voiced dissent about a Corax picking up tribal secrets. Melody's newfound adroitness wasn't without its drawbacks, though. She came out of the Umbra a better sorcerer than she was when she went in, but she found herself unable to interact with the established systems of human society in any meaningful way. Bureaucracy failed her, her credit mysteriously evaporated and the jobs she could find and keep were few and far between. Even computers failed her sometimes when they worked just fine for everyone else. Something inside her had been twisted to be more like her captors. She had become arcane, and while she could more easily comprehend things similar to herself, the logical, Weaver-inspired institutions of society failed her utterly. Needless to say, Melody has spent much of the intervening years trading information for food. Three years after the Uktena dragged her out of the Deep Umbra, tensions came to a head. Part of her patron pack and most of the sept begrudged her her success at learning their secrets, even those that had been taught to her deliberately. She had to go, they said, so she went. She became a raven and flew off to explore the Rockies. She has haunted the mountain range for the past four years, up and down, poking her nose or beak in where it doesn't belong and learning how to live without many of the tools of human society. Recently, she's decided to build herself a nest, and she's settled on the city of Crystal Springs. Etc Category:Character Archive